Filipino Street Food is No Yuck: A letter to a misguided tourist
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Barbecue and meat on display at a street food stall during the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City, Philippines. ©icqgirl |
“You call it disgusting, I call it soul food.”
Agness Walewinder, I would love to meet you and not call you a tramp. Travelling consumes more than 25$ and knowing a place by the littlest it can offer, call it rational to expose a country’s slightest of realization, decide to be a social conquistador and publish an article labeled with ‘rather go hungry than eat’ is pointblank vulgar and offensive. Have you been living under a rock?
Reading your material (etramping.com/rather-go-hungry-eat-filipino-food-again), being the like-minded I am, agrees on you on some point. Like there’s no country serving stale food at times. But making a deal out of it and inflicting a negative spark from a nation whose love and respect for food is undeniable comes with a debatable intent.
Bloggers shed light to people who want to learn and survey experiences online. And when you go online, people expect to read good content. Good content observes etiquette—a way to which people could react, communicate, and assess without having to raze.
You say you are a food hunter; you do research before heading to a country on a quest of experiencing its food. Yet with your two- week stay in the Philippines, you crammed yourself in common carinderia (a local eatery) food—your easiest way to unconstructiveness. Genius!
Filipino food is defined by a melting pot of influences, springing from the Spaniards to Meso- American mix. The Filipino cuisine embraces all the common elements of Asian cuisine – sweet, salty, spicy and sour. Wait ‘til you try adobo and one of the most loved local delicacies here called balut,a boiled duck embryo. Other popular dishes include skewered and marinated barbequed pork and beef, garlic fried rice, and deep fried banana pieces. Crossways, there are an abundance of American fast food restaurants serving hamburgers, pizza, and fried chicken. That’s how diverse and welcoming Filipinos are of serving other food including Polish, your native food.
To my wonder, did you really do you study, or you came here to affront the gastronomic record of our country, and sang your own praises to how particular and given you are in addressing your unsolicited advice? It sucks because you are smart, you have the means, and you’re pretty.
Street food will always be street food, expect that from a portable store. But it’s not them who are our enemy. I believe you need not to go to fancy traditional Filipino restaurants to get great food. Also, if you want to scrape off that sour face you took a photo of to reinforce the backlash you’re enjoying, don’t act as a tourist. Be one with us.
Walewinder: The biggest disappointment was not trying traditional Filipino dishes. Why? We simply could not find them!
That’s my biggest disappointment too, you gave up. You went to Manila, Cebu, and Baguio, travelled miles and miles with a passionate pursuit of knowing our food, but what happened with the journey? I hope you give it more time, explore the country more fully, and with an open mind. Visit Pangasinan or La Union, where flavors are distinctively on large scales.
I'm glad that, from all the babble and wobble, you were able to acknowledge that Philippines is one of the most beautiful places you've ever been, because it is—reminded by the smells and colors and flavors, the look and sound of the place, and the dense mix of food heavens and warm conversations.
I say come back again.
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